Scouting the globe

Want to scout fantastic players like this in FIFA 18? You’ll need to know where to look

Last time we looked at how to pick a good scout in FIFA 18, and why it’s so important to bringing in top-quality players (make sure you read that guide before reading this one). Today, we’ll move on to the next step – deciding where to send your scout.

Are there some regions that consistently produce fantastic players? Are there any hidden goldmines that you’d never think to explore? And do certain regions ‘specialise’ in different types of player? I’ll be examining all of these questions in this guide.

Let’s get started and work out where the best places are to send our scouts in FIFA 18.

Which nations produce the best players in FIFA 18?

In FIFA 18 there are nine different regions to scout. However, the game code actually has 12 different regions. Some regions that you’ll see in the game are divided into two in the game code. For example, South America is one region in the game; in the code Argentina and Brazil count as a separate region to the rest of South America.

It’s important that we use the regions as defined by the code as opposed to those you’ll see in the game, as there are some distinctions in how productive each region is.

Here are the regions the game code defines:

Argentina & Brazil

Rest of South America

North America

Northern Europe

Italy, Spain & Portugal

Rest of Southern Europe

Central Europe

Rest of Europe

Japan & China

Rest of Asia

Australia

Africa

Brazil has a great chance of finding platinum players

Each region is then given a percentage chance of finding platinum players. Platinum players have potential between 75 and 95, so obviously we want the best chance possible of scouting these amazing players.

Here’s the percentage chance each of the 12 above regions has of finding platinum players:

Argentina & Brazil: 15%

Rest of South America: 5%

North America: 2%

Northern Europe: 6%

Italy, Spain & Portugal: 14%

Rest of Southern Europe: 8%

Central Europe: 13%

Rest of Europe: 7%

Japan & China: 3%

Rest of Asia: 1%

Australia: 1%

Africa: 6%

Just from looking at this, we can tell that three regions stand head and shoulders above the others: Argentina & Brazil; Italy, Spain & Portugal; and Central Europe. So it makes sense that we should always send our scouts to those regions, right?

Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple.

Do regions specialise in player types?

Before we get started, it’s good to know what positions you’re likely to find when you search for a particular player type. Below I’ve made a quick table to outline this. You may occasionally get some deviations from the results below, but this is generally what you should expect:

Technically gifted

Winger

Physically strong

Playmaker

Goalkeeper

Attacker

Defensive minded

CM, CAM, RM, LM, RW, LW, CF, ST

RB, LB, RM, LM, RW, LW, CF, ST

CB, CDM, CM, CAM, CF, ST

CB, CDM, CM, CAM, RM, LM

GK

RM, LM, RW, LW

RB, LB, CDM, CM

In addition to this base chance of finding platinum players, each region is rated for its chances to find each player type.

What I mean by that is that you can tell you scout to look for a particular type of player, as well as looking in a certain region. You can tell him to look for one of the following types: technically gifted, winger, physically strong, playmaker, goalkeeper, attacker, defensive minded. You can also tell him you’re not bothered what type of player he finds, in which case you select ‘Any’ in the player type section.

Now, as I said earlier, each region has a rating for its chances of finding each type of player. Here’s how that breaks down:

Region

Technically gifted

Winger

Physically strong

Playmaker

Goalkeeper

Attacker

Defensive minded

Argentina & Brazil

30%

30%

5%

5%

100%

20%

5%

Rest of South America

30%

20%

10%

5%

100%

10%

15%

North America

14%

14%

14%

14%

100%

14%

14%

Northern Europe

14%

14%

14%

14%

100%

14%

14%

Italy, Spain & Portugal

25%

30%

5%

15%

100%

5%

5%

Rest of Southern Europe

25%

30%

5%

15%

100%

5%

5%

Central Europe

20%

10%

10%

25%

100%

5%

10%

Rest of Europe

14%

14%

14%

14%

100%

14%

14%

Japan & China

5%

0.4

5%

20%

100%

15%

10%

Rest of Asia

5%

0.4

5%

20%

100%

15%

10%

Australia

14%

14%

14%

14%

100%

14%

14%

Africa

10%

35%

35%

0

100%

10%

10%

A couple of points to note:

Every region has the same chance of producing goalkeepers

Somewhat controversially, Africa has a 0% chance of finding playmakers (even worse, they’re called ‘mentally strong’ in the game code. Take from that what you will)

So what do these percentages mean? Should we always send our scouts to Asia if we want to find the best wingers, for example?

These percentage ratings only refer to a region’s chances of producing each type of player, not their chances of producing a good player.

If you want to scout a good winger, Spain is a great place to look

Let’s return to the example of finding wingers in Asia. Yes, Asia has a 40% chance of finding wingers. What that means in practice is that if you send a scout to an Asian nation and told him to look for ‘Any’ type of player, 40% of those players will probably be wingers (obviously with some room for randomness). What it doesn’t mean is that those wingers will actually be any good.

So how do we work out where we should go to find a certain type that is actually good, AKA a platinum player? That’s what I’ll look at now.

The best places to scout in FIFA 18

The way we work this out is by combining our knowledge of which regions are most likely to produce platinum players with the table above (thanks to n23 on Reddit for the tip). We end up with something like this:

Region

Platinum tech gifted

Platinum winger

Platinum phys strong

Platinum playmaker

Platinum goalkeeper

Platinum attacker

Platinum def minded

Argentina & Brazil

4.5%

4.5%

0.75%

0.75%

15%

3%

0.75%

Rest of South America

1.5%

1%

0.5%

0.25%

5%

0.5%

0.75%

North America

0.28%

0.28%

0.28%

0.28%

2%

0.28%

0.28%

Northern Europe

0.84%

0.84%

0.84%

0.84%

6%

0.84%

0.84%

Italy, Spain & Portugal

3.5%

4.2%

0.7%

2.1%

14%

0.7%

0.7%

Rest of Southern Europe

2%

2.4%

0.4%

1.2%

8%

0.4%

0.4%

Central Europe

2.6%

1.3%

1.3%

3.25%

13%

0.65%

1.3%

Rest of Europe

0.98%

0.98%

0.98%

0.98%

7%

0.98%

0.98%

Japan & China

0.15%

1.2%

0.15%

0.6%

3%

0.45%

0.3%

Rest of Asia

0.05%

0.4%

0.05%

0.2%

1%

0.15%

0.1%

Australia

0.14%

0.14%

0.14%

0.14%

1%

0.14%

0.14%

Africa

0.6%

2.1%

2.1%

0%

6%

0.6%

0.6%

These percentages look pretty low, but you should use them more as a way of ranking the regions relative to each other, rather than an exact figure. There are other modifiers that come into play – the quality of your scout, how many players you get on each report, and of course an element of randomness.

Still, it’s a useful visualisation and the best way to work out where to send your scout if you’re looking for a certain type.

For example, if you want to find a good winger, go to the ‘Platinum winger’ column in the table and go downwards until you find the highest value. In this case you don’t have to go far – scouting in Argentina or Brazil will give you the best chance.

Is there anything else I should know?

Yes. The rating of a scout, especially his judgment rating, has a huge impact on whether he’ll find platinum players. As I explained in my last guide, a scout with five stars for judgement is ten times more likely to find platinum players than a scout with one star for judgment is.

So take the table above as more of a guide than a rigid system. Sure, you should go to Argentina or Brazil if you want to find a platinum attacker, but if you have a bad scout then he may still fail to find anyone.

The best thing to do is to use the table above in conjunction with the best scout you can afford. That gives you the best chance possible of finding high-quality players.

Liked this? Get exclusive rewards from FIFA Scouting Tips on Patreon!

Related

Comments 1

Thanks again for the great content. Every year, I hope they reclassify/rename the player types for scouting (as well as some of the traits for the Global Transfer Network). Should be more straight forward for players. Also would be more accurate, as any position can have “technical” and/or “strong” players.

Are you struggling to scout good players?

Get my scouting cheat sheet to find out exactly where to find youth superstars!

No matter what player type you're looking for, my cheat sheet will help you scout amazing players. Just enter your name and email address and I'll send it straight to you. I'll also add you to me newsletter, keeping you up to date on the latest guides and tutorials to help you find better players. No spam, ever.